Sharing images using the Internet has become a very popular activity. Images may be sent electronically as an email attachment to recipients having a computer, or entire albums of images may be shared by posting them to a personal web page. Through the use of various on-line photo services, such as the Ofoto™ service, albums of images may be uploaded and conveniently shared by sending the web address of the album to friends and family.
Of course, not everyone has a computer, and in contrast to the methods of electronic sharing just described, sharing a hard copy print using such an online photographic service is more difficult. It is necessary for the sharer to upload to such a service provider not only an image, but also any message the sharer desires to include with the image, and the mailing address of the recipient. The service provider must first print the image product and message separately and then put both in a package. The address must then be added to the package, for example using an address label, or by printing directly on the package, or be written by hand. Postage is then added and the package mailed. During each of these steps by the provider care must be taken to make sure the image product matches the message and that both are mailed to the right address. Currently this process is carried out entirely manually and each step is labor-intensive, time-consuming and fraught with human error. In a high volume photofinishing operation, geared normally to the printing and assembly of a large number of multiple print orders, the task becomes an especially difficult one.
It is well known to automatically track printed documents in the workflow of a printing operation using, for example, a bar code printed on the document. Bar code scanners placed downstream of a document printer can be used to track and direct the printed documents through later steps in a complex operation. Adapting this method to a photographic printing operation by placing a visible bar code in the image area of a photographic print or other image product has obvious drawbacks. A tracking bar code might be placed on the back of a print, but this would require a bar code printer, and perhaps a device for applying a bar code label to the back of the print.
Published U.S. Patent Application 2002/0063744, by Stephens, discloses an invisible bar code printed with a UV fluorescing ink, used to track printed documents in a printing system. While such a method could potentially be adapted to track hard copy photographic prints, the method of Stephens still requires the insertion of an additional specialized bar code printer in the system to print the bar code. In addition, appropriate inks would be needed to successfully overprint a bar code on imaging media without harming the image.
To solve these and other problems, an improved method is needed to enable automatic tracking of hard copy photographic image products in a complex printing operation. Ideally, the method should not employ a visible marking system, and not require additional equipment beyond the original image printer to add the mark to the product.